Heloise: Readers respond to cashier greetings complaint

Dear Readers: Wow! A lot of you wrote in regarding a Sound Off that was printed about cashiers asking “How are you?” Here is what some of you said:

■ “I’ve been a cashier for eight years, and we do this to be friendly. If we don’t say something to the customer, then we come off as rude! If you don’t want to be asked, then you should initiate the conversation,” wrote Brooke in Pennsylvania

■ “Perhaps the clerks are from the South, where it is common courtesy to ask, and her reply should be: ‘I’m fine, thank you. How are you?’ It only takes a minute and gives you a much better feeling,” wrote Betty, via email

■ “When they ask, ‘Did you find everything?’ they don’t mean it. I have told them on several occasions that they were out of something, or had expired products on the shelf. The next time I go to the store, those same items are still on the shelf,” wrote Kate in Texas

■ “I stepped up to a teller at the bank one day, and she said, ‘How are you?’ and I said, ‘Considering I have a bad back, a bad knee, emphysema and neuropathy in my feet, I am pretty good.’ Her reply was ‘Wow.’ And I told her I always wanted to say that to someone who said, ‘How are you?’” wrote A Reader, via email

What a response! Keep your great letters coming! — Heloise

HELOISEis a syndicated columnist with King Features Syndicate, P.O. Box 795000, San Antonio 78279-5000, fax 210-HELOISE